New roles for Houston - mom and actor

Date: November 03, 1992
By Robert Macy

From St. Petersburg Times
Submitted by: Danielle C.


She owns just about every honor a singer could covet, but Whitney Houston says the best is yet to come.

Early next year she'll add the title of "Mom," and the pop music megastar says it's an honor without equal. "There is no comparison," she says, patting her abdomen, a smile lighting up her face.

"It is just the biggest honor of all - to be pregnant, to be waiting for your child to come. It's an amazing thing. It's like no other feeling of joy in the world that I can compare."

Houston, 28, talked of pending parenthood during an interview at the Desert Inn Hotel, where she drew turn-away crowds during a recent three-night engagement.

It was her first appearance at a hotel-casino. But she says she may be working more small venues as opposed to arenas in the months leading up to the birth of her first child.

Now four months pregnant, she says she's ready to slow down a bit. It didn't show in her high-energy, 75-minute performance at the Strip resort.

"I like playing the small venues," she said, propping an elbow on a table in her spacious suite. "I played the small clubs before when I first started out with my mom (singer Cissy Houston) and they were the best of times for me.

"I love the feeling and the intimacy with the people. The feeling that takes half an hour to generate through an arena takes 10 minutes in an intimate atmosphere. I remember once loving that feeling very much."

She says she plans to scale back her work late in her seventh month and "will probably not do anything" in her final month.

But she admits inactivity isn't her forte.

"I'm the type of person - I can't just sit around, I like to keep busy. I'm just pregnant; I'm not an invalid."

Houston is the only artist to achieve seven consecutive No. 1 hits, surpassing the Beatles. Her three albums have reached multiplatinum status. She went from an unknown teenager singing in her mother's church choir in her hometown of Newark, N.J., to music stardom with hits such as The Greatest Love of All, Didn't We Almost Have It All? and Saving All My Love for You.

She's won two Grammys, 12 American Music Awards, three People's Choice citations, a pair of Emmys and an American Black Achievement Award - to name a few.

And next month she ventures onto new professional turf with her first movie, The Bodyguard, opposite Kevin Costner.

She plays a singer-actor being stalked by a killer, with Costner hired as her bodyguard despite her objections. Their relationship evolves from confrontational to romantic, but Houston won't tell the outcome.

"You'll just have to go see the show," she says.

The switch from singing to movies was a "great thrill but very hard work, very confining work," she says.

"It's a very slow-moving process. For me it was a real culture shock, coming from music and being able to move fast, move at your own pace. If you want, you can have a record out in a week. Films take discipline, a deep-rooted discipline."

She received many scripts before Bodyguard, but none to her liking.

"None of them seemed to hit me. Then I saw this one, and I knew it was special. I was afraid. It was like, `My God, can I handle this? This might be too much, Whitney. Don't bite off more than you can chew. Don't do this to yourself.'

"But there was the challenge, along with Kevin's encouragement. He kept telling me, `You can do it. You can do it.'

"It is a major role for a black entertainer, for a black female," she said.

The subject matter - someone stalking a star - was chillingly realistic for Houston, as it is for many celebrities.

"I've dealt with it before," she said. "I've been threatened. People love you to death, if you know what I mean. The word fan comes from the word fanatic."

Houston says she may have a sonogram to learn the sex of her baby, although she likes the suspense of not knowing.

Her husband, singer-songwriter Bobby Brown, is hoping for a girl, she says, while she would like a boy. "So I think it will be a girl, because that's what he wants," she said with a laugh.

As a youngster she wanted to be a teacher or a veterinarian.

"I was always dragging stray animals home. I had this thing for animals. I still do."

The close-knit family that Houston knew growing up remains that way today. In addition to her mother's role in her career, her father, John, is head of her management company, brother Michael is her road manager and brother Gary provides backup vocals. Her career also was influenced by cousin Dionne Warwick and family friend Aretha Franklin.

Children share a special niche in Houston's life. She's formed the Whitney Houston Foundation for Children, headed by her mother. The organization is dedicated to promoting a positive self-image for children by providing opportunities for them to learn and express themselves in safe, supportive environments.

"If anybody doesn't know a child is a miracle, they're not living on this planet," she says.

She makes it a point while on tour to visit children's homes and terminally ill youngsters - one of her toughest challenges "because it touches me so deeply."

Having won it all, and with her first child on the way, Houston says she has another, very special dream.

"I would like to see this nation that we live in called America the beautiful take more interest in our children: in their health; in their education; in their care. When I was growing up, people at least still cared about each other. Their values and morals were more intact. We have to get back to basics. I think we're losing a lot of young people very fast," she said.

"I see things getting worse - drug abuse, crime, the assaults we make on each other. I want my child to grow up in a healthy world, and right now it's not looking very healthy."